Kung Fu Magoo emerges on DVD

It’s been over a year since we heard anything about Classic Media’s attempt to revive Mr. Magoo in something called Kung Fu Magoo. Our friends at TVShowsOnDVD now report that Vivendi Entertainment will release the film direct-to-video on May 11th. (Click image at left to see box art). The 80-minute feature, produced at Mexico’s Anima Estudios, pits Quincy Magoo and his 12-year-old nephew, Justin, against giant robotic spiders, ninjas on jet skis and mutant Beasteens which are half animal and half teenage girl. Jim Conroy (Ruff Ruffman, Kenny the Shark) provides the voice of Mr. Magoo. Doesn’t sound good…

does that little boy have a mullet? i think mr. magoo should round-house kick that mullet back to the 80′s.

http://kelseighn.blogspot.com/ Kelseigh

The description sounds like a movie written by a focus group. Why not just get it over with and make Poochie the Dog the lead?

Although Erik’s comment makes me think “This is Chuck Norris at 90″.

http://waggtoonsandotherstuff.blogspot.com/ Joey Waggoner

Well it could be worse, Mr.Magoo could have been made in CGI.

william

so good it’s been removed by the user.

Christopher Cook

Wasn’t Magoo’s nephew Waldo?

Terry Walsh

I seem to recall reading an article quite some time ago that all the original UPA Magoo theatrical cartoon shorts had been restored and were just sitting on a shelf somewhere as the “powers that be” didn’t think that there was any market for them on DVD.

Can anyone verify this ?

Daniel J. Drazen

When I got to “12-year-old nephew” I knew this wasn’t going to be good.

http://www.selcouthblog.blogspot.com/ Mesterius

The worst thing is, the entire consept is just a thinly veiled attempt at cashing in on the success of “Kung Fu Panda”. They could have rooted the revival in Mr. Magoo’s great legacy as a classic cartoon star, but then someone suddenly realized that the title “Kung Fu Magoo” was just too catchy to not build a movie around it.

Russell H

Come on now, how many people, on reading the title KUNG FU MAGOO, were thinking that this “reboot” was going to also include a considerably reimagined version of Charlie the Houseboy?

http://soccerorassociationfootball.blogspot.com Bob

What’s next, “Kung Fu McBoing Boing?”

Mario NC

Be afraid, be very afraid if Anima Studios is making this…

Anima Studios is one of the few companies in Mexico that has achieved a certain success in producing theatrical animated features. This year they released his fourth feature based on characters of famous mexican wrestlers. The first two films that they made (Wizards and Giants, Imaginum) we’re decent entertainment, directed at children. But after those early attempts, you could say that right now they stuck in a rut… His films have become almost unwatchable and the animation (made on Flash) it’s very limited (even though they have a decent budget and a lot of animator working at the same time) and not very different from most of the cartoons that air on CN or Nickeloden.

There have been several attempts to try and develop quality animation in Mexico, but there are far and between, and most of those are either treathrical shorts or co-productions (many of which are now obscure films or only available in animation and film festivals). The biggest complaint I have on the recent mexican animation is that it doesn’t have a real identity. For the most part is just derivative and lame. Failed attempts to mix the Mexican culture with pseudo-Disney elements and styles.

On the other hand… as far as I know the staff do have a lot of respect and love for the legacy of UPA.

Maybe that’s a good thing??

JM

Im studing clasical animation in mexico City (no Flash no computer only paper and a Light table) and my teacher worked in Hanna barbera Warner Brothers and he teach us how to animate using the clasic basis.

and he uses anima studios as an example of HOW TO NOT MAKE A MOVIE!!!

cliffclaven

Magoo was a cranky old SOB (softened up for the TV versions) who went through life totally unaware of danger, or seeing it where it didn’t exist. A “real” Kung Fu Magoo would either be mistaking a ninja attack for a soccer game (“Let me show you how we played the game at Rutgers, boy…”) or visa versa (“Why, they’ve knocked some poor devil’s HEAD off!”).

Hey, now that all us baby boomers are nearing Magoo’s age, maybe we should cut the old guy a little slack.

Samjoe

I’ll give it a go. It might be fun. If not, I’ll turn it off and do something else. And I have missed Magoo, glad to see him in something besides Disney.

Keith Bryant

Something tells me that the Leslie Nielsen version of Magoo would be better.

http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com Don M. Yowp

Can someone explain to me if Magoo’s such a saleable enough property to go to the trouble of creating a new film, why isn’t it saleable enough to release the old films?

David D. Duncan

This looks as painful as it sounds. Why waste precious time and money today to produce something so obviously lame that it can serve as nothing less than an affront to all of the Magoo legacy that has gone before. To top it off, Mr. Magoo is ill-served on DVD so far, with an unnecessarily-redubbed voice for the bulk of the cartoons featuring the “Cholly” character from the 1960 TV series and the key UPA-Columbia cartoons missing-in-action. And there goes Jim Backus’s record as the only voice talent to tackle Magoo throughout the character’s career. Talk about “Nearsighted!”

http://www.cartoonresearch.com Jerry Beck

Don – Not to defend this atrocity, but Classic Media (who owns the rights to the character Mr. Magoo) has pretty much released all the backlog material they own on DVD. They made this new film to keep the character’s name alive in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, Columbia Pictures (Sony) owns the original theatrical UPA Magoo cartoons (they only own the 50s cartoons and have no merchandising stake in the character). They have yet to release them on DVD.

Donald Benson

Maybe we should hope Kung Fu Magoo makes a ton of money. That may flush out the Columbia shorts. It might even draw out Paramount’s Sir Blur titles.

Yes, this sort of stuff still happens. Universal is finally releasing the surreal Paramount version of Alice in Wonderland (W.C. Fields’ head as Humpty Dumpty!) because of the Depp remake.